ANP chief Asfandyar Wali to not contest elections

Peshawar: Awami National Party (ANP) Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan has decided not to participate in the upcoming general elections. 

Awami National Party has confirmed that Asfandyar Wali will not participate in the election.

ANP stated that Asfandyar is not participating in the election due to health problems, however, his son  Aimal Wali Khan, the provincial president of the ANP, will contest for NA-25 Charsadda, the native constituency from where his father and grandfather Khan Abdul Wali Khan were elected to the National Assembly in the past.

Seventy-four-year-old Asfandyar Wali Khan made his debut in electoral politics in 1990 when he was elected to the NWFP Assembly from Charsadda on the ANP ticket while in 1993 general elections, he made it to the National Assembly and was re-elected to the National Assembly in 1997 general elections.

In 1999, he was elected as central president of the Pakhtun nationalist party while in 2002 he lost to the Mutahida Majlis Amal candidate.

His father Khan Abdul Wali Khan had announced retirement from electoral politics after he lost the National Assembly in 1990 general elections to a noted religious scholar and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl candidate Maulana Hasan Jan.

In the year 2003, Asfandyar was elected to the Senate for six years while in the 2008 general elections, he was elected once again to the National Assembly.

In the 2018 general elections, he lost to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) candidate while his son Aimal Wali Khan lost to PTI then chairman Imran Khan in the by-election.

Aimal Wali Khan did not make it to the provincial and National Assembly and lost twice to the PTI candidate in the general election while last time to former prime minister and then chairman of PTI Imran Khan in the by-election for the same constituency.